Rabbi Mike Uram, the University of Pennsylvania Hillel Executive Director and Campus Rabbi, has been instrumental in imagining and creating an innovative, grass-roots Jewish movement. His book, “Next Generation Judaism: How College Students and Hillel Can Help Reinvent Jewish Organizations,” won a National Jewish Book Award in 2016, and explores the reinvention of Jewish institutions that he believes must take place in order to engage Millennial Jews. 

Uram earned a bachelor of arts degree from Washington University and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. In addition to leading the Hillel, he speaks, teaches, and consults across the country on the changing needs and desires of American Jews, and Jewish organizational innovation. He is especially interested in what Jewish institutions can learn from the for-profit start-up culture. 

Uram will be joining conversations and speaking at several events at Congregation B’nai Amoona from Dec. 14-16. 

Do you think that the “post-institutional” trend among young Jews that you discuss is a new occurrence, or has it shown up in past generations as well?

There are new forces making younger people more post-institutional. In all sorts of industries, whether (it be) newspapers or music, the users have much more choice in what they consume than they did even 20 years ago, and that has been a huge threat to centralized institutions that used to be the gatekeepers. 

The simplest way I’ve found to describe what it means to “activate a Jewish life” is to think about a Yom Kippur paradigm and a Pesach paradigm. A Yom Kippur paradigm is when you try to get the largest number of people together in a room to feel like they’re part of a large, macro community. The Pesach paradigm, a seder paradigm, is where people host their own because they want to. Every seder is customized based on who’s there and who’s leading it, and the gap between the leaders and the participants is much smaller. I think that the organized Jewish community has come to rely almost solely on the Yom Kippur paradigm. We need more people hosting Shabbat dinners, more people organizing Jewish-style community service, more people getting together in small groups to read Torah…In other words, success is not just how many people come to services on Friday night, it’s also how could a synagogue inspire three times as many people to light Shabbat candles. 

You wrote about feeling alienated from the Jewish community when you were younger. What changed, or what did you learn?

I still struggle with feeling part of the Jewish community. We are not one Jewish community. I did youth groups, but they never really felt like my friends. I went to services maybe on the High Holidays, but I didn’t really understand it or believe in it. I was proud to be Jewish, I just didn’t feel like I ever needed to show up.

What really changed is I accidentally stumbled into a Jewish studies course at Wash U., and it absolutely blew my mind. It was the first time that I’d ever encountered PG-13 and sometimes R-rated forms of Judaism — deep, complex, challenging, not always inspirational, sometimes dark, sometimes offensive, but it was real, and thick, and I was super turned on to learn more.

If you ask the vast majority of American Jews, are you interested in showing up, joining a synagogue, going to a federation event, they’ll say, “No, I’m good,” and yet they feel deeply Jewish. The lack of interest in showing up doesn’t mean that Judaism is dying, it just means that Jewish institutions need to change to get it to be less focused on building affiliation and members. I’m not asking the organized Jewish community to commit organizational suicide here. But we’re stuck, a little bit. 

Can you elaborate on how you see potential for Jewish institutions to learn from the innovations of for-profit companies?

There are so many leaders who know that the model is shrinking, and there’s so much broad consensus that we need to change, so why is it so hard to change? There are business models that I think can help us, because companies have the same dynamic. Some great business thinker said, “People don’t fear change, they fear loss.” We rarely get to the second part of the conversation, which is all the opportunities that these changes create. So I like to use these business models as a way of sparking excitement to then turn that same kind of thinking to the future possibilities of Jewish life in America. 

In what ways do you think your personal experiences with Judaism and Jewish communities do or do not shed light on today’s Jewish youth?

I am now a Jewish insider. But my eyes, and my heart, are still very much a Jewish outsider. Growing up, I didn’t understand why anyone was Jewish, I didn’t understand why anyone wanted to go to Hillel. I didn’t go to Hillel in college until I had a relationship with Hillel staff and some very meaningful experiences. So I think that that’s still very much the case. 

What I’ve actually found is that people who are the best at doing engagement work, are the people who did not grow up in the organized Jewish world because those people often want to recreate those experiences for someone else, in a very altruistic way. We need those people to continue in the Jewish community, but what I’ve found is the people who do the engagement work the best have a Jewish story that’s a little bit more like, “I felt disconnected, I felt alienated, and all of a sudden something happened and everything changed.” That trajectory is something people can really resonate with. A lot of the time, people’s reaction is, “I wish that could happen, because I feel deeply Jewish, but every time I’ve ever shown up I feel like I don’t know the words, or I’m afraid of being outed as inauthentic, or I don’t know the people who are there.”

In your book, you say yourself that many Jewish youth “love Judaism” but “cannot figure out how to interface with the organized Jewish community.” How do you know they need the “organized Jewish community” in order to have “depth and meaning in their lives?”

It’s not that they “love Judaism,” it’s that they feel deeply Jewish and have deep respect for Judaism, and I don’t think that they need the organized Jewish community. 

And I also want to say, I’m not “sure” about anything. I am inspired. While I don’t know what the ultimate answers are, I do know that trying to do new and to do it differently and to do it wider creates inspiring possibilities. And again, I don’t think that we have the luxury of waiting to find out what theanswer is before we start. I think we’ve got to get started. 

Scholar-in-Residence Weekend with Rabbi Michael Uram

WHEN: Friday, Dec. 14 to Sunday, Dec. 16

WHERE: Congregation B’nai Amoona, 324 S Mason Rd, Creve Coeur, MO 63141

MORE INFO:For more information, visit www.bnaiamoona.com or call 314-576-9990. The events are part of B’nai Amoona’s Gallant Motivational and Inspirational Weekends, supported by Paul and Diane Gallant.

Urim speaks at the following events during his visit: 

• Friday, Dec. 14: Shabbat Services begin at 6 p.m.; Uram will discuss “There is no such thing as the Jewish community: How the old language we use to talk about Jewish community hurts Jews and weakens Jewish organizations.” A complimentary dinner will follow. RSVP required for dinner.

• Saturday, Dec. 15:  Saturday, Dec. 15: Shabbat Services begin at 9 a.m. Uram will speak on, “Can Judaism Survive in the Age of Millennials? How Synagogues can adapt to remain vital in an ever-changing world?” Guests can enjoy a post-Kiddush guided schmooze at 12:30 p.m., on “The Truth about Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitism on Campus: An insider’s view of what’s really happening and what we can do about it.” At a 3:45 p.m. Seudah Shlisheet, Uram will discuss “Having the Courage to Make Radical Change: Stories of Jewish heroes who saw the future and had the courage to adapt before it was too late.” 

• Sunday, Dec. 16: Sunday, Dec. 16: At 10 a.m. Uram discusses “Seeding Change from Within: Why is it so hard for synagogues to change?” with breakfast to follow.